Reflections
on Hope for Healthcare:
Leaders Create From Chaos
In
recent weeks I have had some interesting
conversations with some of the
physicians I’m coaching around the
events of September 11th.
These discussions have inspired
me to reflect on the chaos and
complexity of the healthcare industry as
simply a reflection of the complexity of
all kinds of global issues faced by
leaders today.
As
physician leaders it’s easy to become
discouraged when we are continuously
bombarded by the demands of our
leadership roles.
While chaos is all around us and
complexity seems to be increasing in all
aspects of our lives – personal,
career, community, nationally, and
globally, I encourage my clients to
experiment with a new perspective that
offers hope for the future and the
possibility of effecting change and work
with them to develop the skills of transformative
leaders.
Chaos
– A Precursor to Creativity
According
to Chaos Theory, systems in chaos, like
our healthcare systems, have three
characteristics:
-
Uncertainty
(unpredictability, which is not the
same as randomness),
-
Subtlety
– a pattern of interconnectedness
that is difficult if not impossible
for many to see and
-
Creativity
- multiple options exist (unlike
problem solving -where there is one
best solution)
As
chaos increases, systems must eventually
do either one of two things -
disintegrate into utter disorganization
with complete dispersal of energy, or
reorganize at a higher level, the nature
of which is unpredictable until it
happens.
The
edge of chaos is where creativity occurs
because there is enough tension created
between dissatisfaction with, or failure
of existing systems, and the desire
(yearning) for a new way to stimulate
the necessary changes and support the
efforts to make it happen.
Without the creative tension,
change will not occur.
However, if there is too much
chaos, the elasticity of the tension is
overcome and the system breaks down
completely like the snapping of an
overstretched rubber band.
Chaos
in Healthcare
It’s
all too easy to find examples of this
phenomenon in healthcare systems both
large and small.
A sure sign of a system in chaos
is a history of successive
reorganizations under a parade of CEOs
over a few short years.
With each
reorganization, the system
becomes more and more unstable as
employee morale falls, leaders lose
touch with their constituents, the
organization loses credibility in the
community and the system falls into the
“doom loop”.
As revenues fall, resources
become more limited until eventually the
system passes the point where recovery
is possible.
At that time, it may fail
completely, close down or be absorbed by
a larger system.
However, if at some point in the
process, a new leader who understands
how to manage the creative tension at
the edge of chaos comes aboard before
it’s too late, he or she may lead the
organization through a transformative
process into a stronger, more vibrant
organization than ever before.
A
Challenging Role for Healthcare Leaders
In
my view, healthcare as an industry and
many of the systems within it are at the
edge of chaos today. As leaders in
healthcare, our role is to create and
maintain the space in which people can
grow and organizations can transform.
A leader’s job is to maintain
the pressure necessary to keep the work
going, yet offer the safety of a resting
place for the followers in the face of
overwhelm.
My questions are these:
§
Are
there enough of us - a critical mass of
physicians who are willing to step up
and ask, "What am I willing to
notice in my world?"
And, "What am I willing to
do about it?" (Wheatley, MJ,
Turning to one another: Simple
conversations to restore hope to the
future. 2002,
San
Francisco
:
Berrett-Koehler.)
§
Are
we too late – will our healthcare
system go the way of the dinosaurs, or
are there enough physician leaders and
other healthcare leaders who understand
what it takes to create an environment
conducive to transformative
change?
§
Who
will hold the leaders?
The answer to this question I
believe lies in creating, nurturing and
supportive communities such as Creative
Strategies for Physician Leadership
where physician can hold and support
each other and develop through training
and coaching to help them learn the new
skills required of transformative
leaders.
Adopting
a New Perspective
In
a recent course I took called Exploring
the
Spirit Beyond Work
Through Islamic Mysticism,
I learned to look for paradoxes in the
midst of complexity and chaos because
paradox is the source of creative
solutions.
Within paradoxes lie the seeds of
change.
The greater the complexity and
chaos of a given situation, the greater
is the opportunity for creative thinking
that will lead to innovative, transformative
solutions.
To
tap into the creativity at the edge of
chaos, a leader must learn to let go of
positions that insist on either/or
(good vs. evil, life vs. death, my way
vs. your way), and look for
possibilities that support both/and,
and ultimately seek solutions that transcend
and include with the idea
being that the whole is greater than the
sum of its parts.
Hope
for the Future
Healthcare
leaders must seek commonalities which
support the interconnectedness of the
world such as transpersonal values
-values that transcend medical
specialty, individual interests, race,
gender, culture and are held by all
humankind - love, safety, respect,
dignity, sacredness of life.
Physician leaders must, as
Wheatley suggests (2002), begin turning
to one another in simple conversation to
discover what these values are, to start
talking about them and to begin
questioning when, where and why they are
not being honored.
We
as physician leaders have the unique
opportunity (duty?) to model this
behavior and because we are in positions
of leadership, both formal and informal,
have far-reaching influence.
Consequently, we have the
leverage to actually effect positive
change.
This is the belief that gives me
a sense of hope for the future of
healthcare and in a broader sense
greater hope for humanity.
As
a coach, I encourage and support my
clients to take that first critical step
- to embrace complexity and chaos as a
source of creativity and to develop the
skills required of transformative
leaders.
I invite you to reflect on how
you might creatively address the issues
facing your organization, your
local medical community and the
worldwide community as a whole.
Each journey, no matter how long,
begins with the first step.
Comments
provided by:
- Jane
L. Thilo, MD, MS
- Business
Consultant & Executive Coach
- Developing
capable leaders for turbulent times
Dr. Thilo
specializes in working with physician
leaders and other senior level
executives aspiring to build competency
in the skills required to lead
organizations in the chaos and
complexity of today’s business
environment.
